Rainbow Rowell follows up her runaway young adult hits Eleanor & Park and Fangirl with a sparkling romantic comedy for adults. The sitcom-style premise sets the stage for the adroit relationship analysis we've come to expect from Rowell.
Separated from her husband by several states at Christmastime, Georgie talks to Neal on the phone every night. There's just one quirk: Georgie's nighttime calls from the landline in her old room at her mother's house don't reach Neal as she knows him in 2013. Instead of talking to her husband and the father of their two small daughters, Georgie finds herself talking to a Neal from the past, during a Christmas break when they'd broken up, days before Neal surprised her by showing up at her family's house and proposing.
Neal thinks he's talking to the Georgie from his time and wants to fix their fight, but present-day Georgie knows their marriage turned out far from perfect. Neal is a great stay-at-home dad, but Georgie has repeatedly put her career as a TV comedy writer in Los Angeles ahead of their family. In fact, Neal in her time isn't speaking to her after she stayed behind in California for an important meeting instead of going to Nebraska with him and the girls to visit his mother for Christmas. The opportunity to relive their past casts Georgie's mistakes in sharp relief, but she's not sure if she's supposed to use the opportunity to repair her relationship or end her marriage before it begins.
Rowell takes a seemingly fluffy concept and gives it such thoughtful treatment that disbelief easily falls by the wayside. Slipping effortlessly between Georgie and Neal's slow-blooming courtship and their complicated present, Rowell explores how the seeds of strife are sometimes sown in the happy beginnings of a relationship when one partner sacrifices too much for love. She also illustrates how easily we can take people for granted when problems are glossed over rather than discussed, how we sometimes know we've crossed a hurtful line and pledge empty internal vows to make restitution later. At the same time, she reaffirms the power of love and shared history: "When Georgie thought about divorce now, she imagined lying side by side with Neal on two operating tables while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems." Georgie may have the chance to right the wrongs of the past by simply undoing it, but readers will hope she instead has the bravery to fight for a rare and believable love. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: In this romantic comedy that features a surprising gateway to the past, wry humor balances a serious meditation on taking love for granted.